Hello again from Gary. As I write to you from San Rafael, California, it’s a beautiful spring day with sunny, cloudless skies and temperatures in the mid-70s (F), truly a gorgeous day. I hope all things are gorgeous for you as well.

The topic for today’s post has to do with an easily misunderstood detail in preparing papers for your Russian bride’s fiancee or spousal visa. It will not be a problem if your bride is coming from The Russian Federation. But it will be a problem if she’s coming from Ukraine. It’s possibly a problem as well if she’s coming from other former Soviet countries, but I’m not certain of that. Of the Ukrainian issue, though, I’m certain.

The problem has to do with language translation of the papers you submit to the American embassy for her K1 (fiancee) or K3 (spousal) visa. The embassy requires that all documents submitted for visa applications be accompanied by a translation into English. This applies to all official government documents such as passports, certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, etc.. This seemingly simple process of translating from one language to another has been made more complex by the forces of politics in the history of Ukraine.

I’ll try to explain, but bear with me because it gets a bit complicated. First, some history. (NOTE - - this is a very abbreviated and simplistic rendition of a great country’s history. My apologies in advance to anyone who feels slighted by the brevity and cursory treatment.)

Over the past several hundred years, the country of Ukraine (whose name means “border land”) is best regarded as an “area” or “territory” with boundaries in a continual state of flux. Throughout this time it was ruled over at various times by Mongols, Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Austrians, Romanians, Turks, and of course, Russians (multiple times). But during this long period, parts of Ukraine were only briefly controlled by Ukrainians. As you might imagine, all of these changes in control resulted in much turmoil as well as massive population shifts and all that transpires during such shifts.

Yet beneath the surface of this turmoil was bubbling a powerful sense of unity and a desire for the establishment of a nation state based on the Ukrainian language and culture. You might wonder, as I do, how these people, located at a geographically strategic crossroads of trade and power, were able to create and maintain a unifying language and body of cultural traditions. Yet, they did, even though it was at times alternately strongly encouraged or often, even more strongly suppressed.

And then along comes 1991 and the breakup of the USSR. Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991 and overwhelmingly voted for this independent status in a national referendum on December 1, 1991. Finally after many centuries, the Ukrainian people have realized the dream of their own nation state. And shortly after becoming independent, the Ukrainian government declared that the official language of the country would be Ukrainian, not Russian. All official business and correspondence was to be conducted in Ukrainian. Further, official documents such as birth certificates for persons born in Ukraine during the years of Soviet control were to be converted from Russian to Ukrainian. And naturally, the passport of all persons needed to be re-issued, again in Ukrainian.

O.K., so what’s the big deal? Just have your fiancee’s papers translated to English from Ukrainian instead of from Russian, right? Sorry, that won’t work. Many place names and personal names do not translate identically for Ukrainian to English versus Russian to English. So depending on the names and places involved in your fiancee’s papers and also on her family history of life in Russia versus life in Ukraine, her documents could end up at the American embassy with person and place names on one document not matched to those same names on another document. Her papers will be considered “not in order” and her visa request will be denied.

What to do? Her papers must go through a 2 stage translation process. The first stage is to perform the raw translation from Ukrainian for basic words such as birth, father, mother, etc.. The second stage resolves any differences in names across documents and will result in sub documents that state that “abc” is the same as “xyx”.

And how to do this? Translation of official documents can only be performed by Ukrainian government approved entities (typically lawyers and their approved staff). These approved translators know about the “abc” is the same as “xyz” thing and can provide the appropriate service to resolve differences. So make sure your fiancee uses only  the government approved translator services for her documents and that she asks for/agrees to the “abc” to “xyz” resolution service. She must avoid using Ivan’s Cheap-N-Fast Translation Service located so conveniently down the street. Since each approved translation and sub-document is authenticated with an official government seal, Ivan, though he may hold a Doctorate in English, cannot legally translate her documents unless he has that seal. And the American Embassy will deny her visa if her translated documents are not properly sealed.

So there you have it. This is not really a big problem to deal with. But I write this to give you a big “heads up” . Don’t try to cut corners. As I’ve written about before, this whole game of visas and green cards to marry a foreign woman is a game where the bureaucrats make the rules. If you short cut the rules, you lose. So learn the rules and play the game well. It’s absolutely, totally worth it.

Until next time when I’ll write about a fun suggestion to help your fiancee visa get approval, good luck, good health and much wealth to you.

Gary.

P.S. I’ve updated our links page (under Miscellaneous info) with the Wikipedia URL for a good overview of Ukrainian history including a great list of suggestions for additional reading.

Also, on our Misc. Video Clips page is a short promotional video produced by the government of Ukraine. It will give you a tiny peek at the cultural depth and pride of the Ukrainian people. Look for the “Ukraine promotional film” posted on 02-27-07.

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